Gaming Guru

VP Heaven Updated

A long time ago, my father, Lenny Frome, gave Las Vegas the nickname of Video
Poker Heaven. He gave it this name for obvious reasons. Las Vegas was the home
of plentiful high paying video poker machines. Full-pay jacks or better paying
99.5% could be found in almost every casino. Similarly, it wasn't too hard to
find one of the even better paying Deuces Wild games. Mind you, we're not talking
about a single teaser machine per casino or even a handful of machines. We're
talking about many machines all over the casino.

To make it Las Vegas look even better, was the fact that many other casino
locales, such as Atlantic City were filled with lousy paying machines. Atlantic
City was filled with 6-5 jacks or better machines paying 95.5%. Atlantic City
had it's very own Double Joker Wild available paying 97.7%, but quite frankly,
I doubt too many people had a clue as to how to play it in order to achieve
this payback.

So, basically, video poker in Las Vegas was not only the best place to play
video poker, but they were the best gambling option found anywhere. The paybacks
at their worst compared to blackjack, and in many cases, by going over 100%,
were superior to any bet found in a casino. Of course, to achieve these paybacks
required learning some complex strategies, which only a small percent of people
were willing to do.

Over the past ten years, while Atlantic City paytables have been increasing,
Las Vegas paytables have been slowly decreasing. Why is this? Atlantic City,
when it came into existence was able to draw in large numbers of Players from
the East Coast. Over time, however, people began to realize just how bad the
paytables were and after hearing about Las Vegas, many of these people decided
that a trip to Las Vegas could actually be cheaper when everything was taken
into account. Also, casinos opened in Connecticut that added to the competitive
pressures. As a result, Atlantic City has made its paytables at least respectable
and occasionally you can find a true full-pay machine in the mix.

On the other side of the country, Las Vegas has become more and more popular.
People are flocking to the casinos in large numbers, and quite frankly playing
anything the casino is putting on the floor, without even doing a quick scan
of the casino to find out what is worth playing. Additionally, in the past 15
years, a lot of players have been educated as to how to play video poker. So,
even if these players are not playing perfectly and not playing the best paying
machines, they are still better than they used to be. This has put pressure
on the casino to lower the paytables in order to keep their profit levels up.

In fact, these top paying machines have become so rare, that this past week,
when Wynn's added a handful (9?) full-pay machines to their floor, it actually
became news worthy. Professional players rely on these machines for their living.
While the recreational player will accept machines with a small house and hope
that lady luck shines on them for their short trips, professionals require machines
that either play at over 100% or at the very least just below 100% so when they
add in comps and cashback that the total goes over 100%. Many of these professionals
are hoping that the media attention that Wynn's is getting will cause other
casinos to add more full-pay machines to their inventory.

As for me, I'm a little skeptical that this will occur. At best, a few casinos
will add a few of these machines. If these machines bring in hundreds of players
where only a few can play the full-pay machines and the rest wind up playing
the rest of the inventory (i.e. lesser paying machines), these machines may
stick around. In the end, however, this will really mostly help the professional
players. I have nothing against these players, of course. However, if we want
the casinos to put in more better paying machines, enough for all of us, this
will only be accomplished when Players STOP playing the lesser paying machines.
When you find the good paying machines all taken up, either tell the casino
that you want more better paying machines and that you're leaving, or just wait
until there is an open seat.

So long as a lousy paying machine has a Player, there is no reason for the
casino to increase the paytables on the machine. Why would they? If, however,
they see empty video poker machines and they realize it's because people refuse
to play them because they don't pay high enough paybacks, the casino will have
no choice but to replace them with machines people will play.

This is not to say that you should only play 100+% games. While these are
especially nice, I realize that they are exceptionally rare and to expect to
go to a casino and play games with a Player advantage should not be expected.
Full-pay jacks or better paying 99.5% pays better than most other casino games.
If, however, you can only find games paying below 98%, perhaps it's time to
consider one of the many table games that pay 98% and up. Just remember that
Expert Strategy applies to these games as well.

Elliot Frome is a 2nd generation gaming author and analyst. His father, Lenny Frome was considered one of the premier authors of Video Poker books. Titles include, Expert Video Poker for Las Vegas and Winning Strategies for Video Poker, which includes the strategy tables for 61 of the country’s most popular versions of Video Poker. Check out Compu-Flyers website at www.vpheaven.com, or drop Elliot an e-mail at compuflyers@prodigy.net.

Elliot Frome Websites:

Books by Elliot Frome:

Elliot Frome is a 2nd generation gaming author and analyst. His father, Lenny Frome was considered one of the premier authors of Video Poker books. Titles include, Expert Video Poker for Las Vegas and Winning Strategies for Video Poker, which includes the strategy tables for 61 of the country’s most popular versions of Video Poker. Check out Compu-Flyers website at www.vpheaven.com, or drop Elliot an e-mail at compuflyers@prodigy.net.

Books by Elliot Frome:

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